Andrew Stewart PoOP 2013

BEST: 2013

“Time for the comedown.”

Buy New or Used via Amazon1.Kurt Vile / Wakin On a Pretty Daze: A mobius strip of psychedelia blooms up, up and away from this newly-minted guitar icon, who unfurls eighty minutes of magic here, and makes it seem effortless. Wonderful.

Buy New or Used via Amazon2.Mikal Cronin / MCII: Former sidekick kicks down the mike stand, making your eyes widen and your heart pump love. Brendan Benson, take notice: this guy is eating your lunch.

Buy New or Used via Amazon3.Islands / Ski Mask: Another fancy hopscotch move from Nick Thorburn, this droll, underrated album of loopy, enthralling stagecraft is like a fun-house mirror of fear and heartbreak.

Buy New or Used via Amazon4.Bombino / Nomad: If Otis Taylor has trance-blues, then this guy has the Rosetta Stone in his satchel. Mesmerizing, insane Arabic blues-rock, on the run from Niger to Nashville, seething with soul.

Buy New or Used via Amazon5.Junip / Junip: After all these years, Jose Gonzalez finally solves the alchemy of guy-with-guitar meets trippy murmur-rock with this golden nugget. Transmissions from the future, now.

Buy New or Used via Amazon6.Neko Case / The Worse Things Get…: Still sad and lonely but once again pleasingly weird, her songwriting has never been better – and she sounds full of life again. An iconoclast’s welcome return from the blahs.

Buy New or Used via Amazon7.Vampire Weekend / Modern Vampires of the City: They don’t care what you think, but that’s only ‘cause they know better. Undeniably enjoyable, this complex, witty, awesome album is what pop music should be.

Buy New or Used via Amazon8.Deerhunter / Monomania: Despite a bit more fuzz-and-menace than before, they’re more accessible than ever on this album full of phenomenal songs that would make Bowie blush.

Buy New or Used via Amazon9.Volcano Choir / Repave: Justin Vernon’s Big Papi moment: in the face of unrealistically high expectations, he delivers a juiced-up, operatic, synth-pop moon-shot. (Unlike with Papi, no actual juice required.)

Buy New or Used via Amazon10.Eleanor Freidberger / Personal Record: Spare, sophisticated ballads soaked in sadness, the kind of album Lou Reed might take with him to the big CBGB in the sky – on vinyl, of course.

11.Unknown Mortal Orchestra / II: Flinty, haunting lo-fi songs are full of troubling weirdness, radio signals from the bottom of vertiginous psychic canyons.
12.Parquet Courts / Light Up Gold: Marked by bouncy, skiffly hooks, this loose-jointed, easy slacker rock album sounds like Pavement’s Femme-y, lazy little brothers – with a little more sneer.13.Night Beds / Country Sleep: Vocalist Winston Yellen is a Heartbreaker reborn, with more than a little Grace; soaring, stunning, operatic country-folk that also satisfies your pop jones.14.Cass McCombs / Big Wheel and Others: On this album of voluptuous, romantic, occasionally maudlin songs this ambitious, reserved retrophile opens up in a way he hasn’t before.15.The Dodos / Carrier: This band can’t miss: another amazing album of polyrhythmic pop songs from this SF-based band. Wickedly underappreciated, their catalog is now bursting with goodness.16.Fuzz / Fuzz: A hefty slab of taut, terse grunge-punk, welterweight-tough, with Ty Segall on drums.17.Death Songs / Sung Inside a House: Whip-smart folk-pop with an edge, a leaner iteration of Shaky Hands.18.The Sadies / Internal Sounds: The Goods deliver: more classic Americana, bloodshot sagacity in sepia tones.19.Veronica Falls / Waiting For Something To Happen: Waxahatchee has got nothing on these wave-gazers.20.Phosphorescent / Muchacho: Arguably overrated, but these weird desert chorales will raise you up.

THE REST
Arctic Monkeys / AM (better than advertised, there are some great moments here)
Atoms For Peace / AMOK (dragged down by monotony, this could have been amazing)
Bass Drum of Death / Bass Drum of Death (fans of Japandroids, take note)
Blitzen Trapper / VII (they’re still stuck in a rut, but things could be worse; more electric-boogie rock)
Brazos / Saltwater (a bit overcooked, this album of swoony, moony tunes is almost great)
Richard Buckner / Surrounded (fuckin’ Buckner, an old pal, shines some electronica on his folk sound)Zachary Cale / Blue Rider (the second album from a burgeoning talent, this one’s back-to-basics folk)
The Cave Singers / Naomi (a letdown from their great 2011 album, this one’s good but a bit too polished)
Chance The Rapper / Acid Rap (soulful, adventurous, corny, funky, weird, angry, funny – and awesome)
Elvis Costello & The Roots / Wise Up Ghost (way better than you want to admit, this one rocks)
Country Mice / Hour of the Wolf (little-known Midwest-via-Brooklyn band writes great rock songs)
Diane Coffee / My Friend Fish (Foxygen drummer channels 60’s soul on his debut)
Mike Doughty / Circles Super Bon Bon… (Soul Coughing frontman covers himself, and it works)Ducktails / The Flower Lane (Real Estate side project sounds like Yo La Tengo covering “Gaucho.”)
Tim Easton / Not Cool (skiffle-boogie rockity-roll that shimshams its way into your heart)
Hanni el Khatib / Head In The Dirt (commercial blues-rock with that Auerbach touch, solid stuff)
Foxygen / We Are The 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace and Magic (goddamn annoying, but damn, it’s good)
Davíd Garza / Human Tattoo (this guy should be bigger – “Overdub,” anyone? – and this album proves it)
Generationals / Heza (it’s not clear why this band isn’t more lauded after another tight-knit set)
Haim / Days Are Gone (on intrigue alone they’re worth hearing; but surprise, this is interesting stuff)
Jim James / Regions of Light and Sound of God (ghost-prog meditations from MMJ’s frontman)King Krule / 6 Feet Beneath The Moon (looks like Ron Weasley, sounds like an edgier Billy Bragg)
Mac Miller / Watching Movies With The Sound Off (underachieving rapper steps it up with a great album)
Janelle Monae / The Electric Lady (ambition and talent in equal measure, with superb R&B songwriting)
Nerves Junior / Craters EP (Radiohead-inspired Kentucky band wets your whistle with this three song EP)Nathaniel Rateliff / Falling Faster Than You Can Run (burly folkster moves with a powerful voice)
Rhye / Woman (overrated but uber-cool androgynous soul album has a lot to say)
Dawn Richard / Goldenheart (transcendent, glacier-cool R&B album should have been bigger)
Ty Segall / Sleeper + Gemini (yin-yang acoustic-electric double-shot from indie music’s most prolific artist)
Smith Westerns / Soft Will (more diaphenous Brit-style glam-rock from these Chicagoans)William Tyler / Impossible Truth (journeyman of the American Primitive soul, mesmerizing)
John Vanderslice / Dagger Beach (another album that repeatedly impresses, even after multiple listens)
Waxahatchee / Cerulean Salt (powerful, modern – but monotonous; they’re still one record away)
Weed / Deserve (gnarly, greasy grunge–mongers barely hold on to their sanity over the length of this album)
Yuck / Glow & Behold (a personnel change changes everything, and while it’s less overt, it’s pretty solid)